Day: December 24, 2019

Primed

Yesterday was a particularly intense writing day. I added twelve pages (and edited multiple sections), shunning other activities to stay in the tube. Ran out of coffee; butt went completely numb. A friend later said, “I saw you at the coffee shop writing. You were so intense, I think you were scaring people. I sure as heck didn’t want to disturb you.”

Yes, twelve new pages are a lot for me to accomplish in one day. My sessions generally top out at five to six. More, though, after ‘finishing’ writing for the day, the muses continued feeding me pieces of story, scene, and characters. Getting in here today, words fill my pathways, ready to find the page, a fantastic feeling.

I’ll write today but not tomorrow (damn coffee shop is closed for some holiday, can you believe it?), and then resume Thursday. I thought, hopefully I won’t lose momentum, and then shrugged that off. Momentum comes and go. Long as I keep putting my ass in a chair and turning on the computer in front of me, progression will continue, not always as a deluge or a storm, but at least at a gentle trickle.

I started this project on November first. I’m at two hundred fifty pages (71,000 words). My goal is to limit it to a three-hundred page draft, and I think that’s within reach. Of course, I have to laugh at myself (and my muses), as sequels (and tangents) have leaped into my imagination stream.

Got my coffee. Time to write like crazy, at least one more time.

Cheers

2

Floofware

Floofware (floofinition) – Major items of equipment or components intended for use by animals.

In use: “Although laptops and keyboards are not floofware, many pets like to believe otherwise.”

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Now Watching

We finished watching His Dark Materials. It felt rushed — like, the time with the bears should have been longer — and we have some casting issues, (well, one) but it was a worthwhile entertainment.

Alas, it ended too quickly. What to watch now?

Well, we have American Gods on deck, deciding to hold off on it until we finished His Dark Materials so we’d have something in reserve. Meanwhile, my wife said, “What about Watchmen?”

She didn’t have much awareness about the show. I was familiar with the movie and graphic novels and knew they were doing a series. Sure, let’s watch.

Well, the first damn episode was gripping. Hope the rest are as good. I know of series that started strongly but then faded.

Meanwhile, I’m finishing with Dublin Murders. I’d read the Tana French books and enjoyed them, particularly the first, In the Woods. Our neighbor, Walt, didn’t like “The Likeness”. “There’s no way that a person can live with people who know them and fool them into thinking they’re someone else. I just can’t buy it.” I enjoyed it, though, and I find the series moderately entertaining, with perhaps a little too much angst. I like the casting, as I’m familiar with a number of the actors via BBC (and Britbox), Acorn, and Netflix. I recommend the series. They’re not procedurals but murder/dramas, in my mind (where else) (would we call a murder/drama a murma?)

Cheers

0

The Cookies

“The cookies are easy to make,” she told Cindy after sharing the recipe with her. “You should make them when your grandchildren come up. They came up. It’d be fun.”

“Good idea. I will.”

A few days later, Barb ran into Cindy. “We made the cookies,” Cindy said.

“And…?”

“They burned.”

“What?”

“Tell me the recipe again.”

“You start with tortillas and cut them out with cookie cutters.”

“I did that.”

“Then you put them on the baking sheet and brush them with butter.”

“Butter! You didn’t mention butter.”

“I think I did…but, after you brush them with butter, you dust them with cinnamon and sugar.”

“Sugar! You didn’t say anything about sugar.”

“Do you want me to send you an email with the recipe?”

“No, I’ll have my son-in-law find them for me.”

0

The Dreams Return – Lost Shoe, Found Dog

The dreams returned, which is reassuring. I dream often and vividly, and not having dreams was having a friend away. Good to have them back.

I found myself camping with friends. I say camping, but it was a shelter — roof, floor, and walls, cutouts for windows but sans glass — although it did have a door — where we stayed. That event took place and the others I camped with left to cross the river.

I went to places unknown and then returned to camp again. Unplanned, I lacked food, gear, and shoes. Just trying to figure out how I was going to handle that when I heard the door open.

A woman with her children had arrived to stay for the week. Speaking with them, I discovered that I’d been camping with the woman’s husband the week before. I told them I’d vacate the shelter for them, but they waved that offer away, and offered me their food.

I then I had one shoe (black walking shoe) but not the other. How — where — when — did I lose my shoe? As I’m walking around in one shoe, a small, injured animal, a dog, arrived. I recognized it as an animal I’d been feeding the previous week and that it was a pet that belonged to my neighbor. Grey and brown, the dog resembled a fox. Its wound concerned me. I cleaned the wound with help from the woman, and then fed the dog. The dog seemed pleased and started wagging its tail.

The dream ended.

0

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Heavy traffic downtown in our town yesterday. Ah, holidays, I figured. School is out. Last minute shopping. Meeting for drinks and meals, doing holiday things under the weak sunshine in the forty-degree air.

Which kicked Lindsey Buckingham singing “Holiday Road” (1983). I know the song from that classic comedy, National Lampoon’s Vacation with Chevy Chase. We were on Okinawa when it came out (military), and saw it on video at home. The movie became a favorite.

“I found out long ago,
“it’s a long way down the Holiday Road.”

“Holiday Road” has a lot of energy but not many words, yet it conveys that whole sense of excitement of jumping into the Family Truckster and braving the Interstates for a family vacation.

I especially like the dog’s barking at the song’s end.

Hope your Holiday Road is a smooth and safe one this year. Let’s be safe out there.

 

Had to include something of National Lampoon’s Vacation, right?

 

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